iOS 6.1 goes public with Fandango support, ad tracking reset, and more

The update also benefits iTunes Match users who download songs from iCloud.

iOS 6.1 is now available to the public, either via iTunes or over-the-air directly to your iDevice. The update comes with some useful functionality fixes—especially for those who subscribe to iTunes Match or don't yet have access to LTE support—and there are even a couple new features, at least for those of us in the US.

The update was apparently significant enough for Apple to send out a press release. The company largely focused on the 36 additional carriers who will now support LTE on the iPhone 5 and the 23 new carriers for LTE on the iPad. The list of supported carriers can now be found online on Apple's iPhone 5 page.

Apple also added the ability to download individual songs from iCloud—a common complaint from iTunes Match users, who have found themselves stuck between syncing all songs over the cloud versus none at all. That's in addition to a new reset button for Apple's "Advertising Identifier" (Apple's solution for targeted ad tracking after deprecating the UDID.) Various privacy advocates complained that Apple's previous advertising ID switch was confusing and hard to find; from what we can tell, the switch is still in the same hard-to-find place, but there's a new button that lets you reset the identifier altogether.

iOS 6.1 now comes with a button that lets you reset the advertisement tracking altogether on your device.

Finally, there's one major new feature added for US users: the ability to purchase movie tickets using Siri. The feature uses third-party service Fandango to make the ticket sales, similar to how Siri handles restaurant recommendations through Yelp or reservations through OpenTable. This feature may not be as significant as those we added to our iOS wish list last week, but it should be useful for those movie buffs who like to get their tickets before showing up at the theater.

We're confident that iOS 6.1 contains a number of other smaller fixes that Apple didn't detail in its public release notes. Let us know if you find any other interesting tidbits while we dig through the update.

Interestingly, my Verizon iPhone 4S running stock 6.0.1 (10A523) is prompting me to update to iOS 6.1 beta 4, with a little notice at the bottom that says, "This beta version of iOS should only be deployed on devices dedicated for iOS 6.1 beta software development."

I've never been a developer, and never had a beta version of iOS on my device, but I'm tempted to install it! It offers a link to a release notes page, but my Apple ID isn't allowed access. Hmmmmmm.

I wonder if the jailbreak they've been working on still works in 6.1. Have they said anything about it?

They specifically mentioned that they were going to let this one drop before even thinking baout releasing something, just to increase the lifespan of whichever exploit they have to burn.. for what that's worth. Chances are good- they were looking for at least one spare to keep in the back pocket, too, though.

As an Android fan, I'd just like to say I'm pleased that we can have an informative article on a mobile platform's software update without turning it into a fight. Not being cynical or sarcastic, I very much expected to come in here and see someone say "woooow they finally have features that xyz has had forver" but I didn't find that. Then again, seeing as this is only like the eighth comment...

It certainly looks like the jailbreak for this will be shown off on Superbowl Sunday, the third of February. If you're looking for jailbreaking info, come check out the jailbreak thread in the Mac Ach!

As an Android fan, I'd just like to say I'm pleased that we can have an informative article on a mobile platform's software update without turning it into a fight. Not being cynical or sarcastic, I very much expected to come in here and see someone say "woooow they finally have features that xyz has had forver" but I didn't find that. Then again, seeing as this is only like the eighth comment...

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

Any fixes for iTunes Home Sharing with video on the iPad? iOS 6.0.1 was barely usable with a large library. The TV show list was full of random media artwork, the list was shown in arbitrary order, sometimes the app would become unresponsive to touches, etc. It's surprisingly broken for an Apple product.

I may have been overly optimistic, but I was really hoping for maybe some tweaking to the notifications center to include quick access to commonly used features found in 'settings' (Airplane mode, wifi, brightness, etc)

I'm hoping they do something to improve iOS' dictionary and predictive text. I love my iPad but am dismayed how poorly it performs in simple typing when compared to my WP8 device. As somebody else mentioned, I would love to be able to toggle Bluetooth/WiFi/Airplane mode from a notification bar; that is the *only* thing I miss about Android.

I remember battery complaints on iPhones running 6.0.2 (I believe), but never heard anything after that. I have to believe that, if it's a real issue, the 6.1 update must address that.

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

Siri is still technically in Beta. If it isn't performing to the level they want when only their special exceptions are running, why would they open it to everyone? That isn't very Apple. They want the experience to be good and as is here in Louisville on Sprint, Siri works for me maybe 1/3 of the time when I'm not on wi-fi.

I hope it'll fix the wifi issues. So far I've found with iPad Mini, intermittently the broswer stuck when loading a web page, apps sometimes failed to download, and wifi is disconnected most of the time when in sleep mode. All of these issues do not happen with iPhone4S, and iPad 1, both running iOs 5.11.

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

Really? How would that work? Let's say I'm a developer and I want to add the ability to look up prices for toys. How exactly would I "hook into" Siri to enable this? How would it co-exist with other apps that might do the same thing, or apps like Amazon that cover toys and other things?

Even once you've solved that, how would you handle internationalization? What happens when someone asks Siri about toys in Mandarin? Does my app register languages it can handle? Does Apple translate the request behind the scenes?

It may be that this can be done, but it sure as hell isn't "simpler" than picking a few partners and ensuring 100% coverage of all use cases by limiting them to a very finite universe.

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

Really? How would that work? Let's say I'm a developer and I want to add the ability to look up prices for toys. How exactly would I "hook into" Siri to enable this? How would it co-exist with other apps that might do the same thing, or apps like Amazon that cover toys and other things?

Even once you've solved that, how would you handle internationalization? What happens when someone asks Siri about toys in Mandarin? Does my app register languages it can handle? Does Apple translate the request behind the scenes?

It may be that this can be done, but it sure as hell isn't "simpler" than picking a few partners and ensuring 100% coverage of all use cases by limiting them to a very finite universe.

I'm guessing he means something like what Windows Phone 8 has. It's an app centric model where you would call the app, then control it by voice. For example, to use voice control in audible you would first tell the phone to launch audible, then tell audible what to do (ie. play book x).

I hope it'll fix the wifi issues. So far I've found with iPad Mini, intermittently the broswer stuck when loading a web page, apps sometimes failed to download, and wifi is disconnected most of the time when in sleep mode. All of these issues do not happen with iPhone4S, and iPad 1, both running iOs 5.11.

I have the same issue with my iPhone 4S running iOS 6.0.1 - it's VERY frustrating. I usually have to disable WIFI to access the Internet if the signal is not optimal.

So, it allows you to download individual songs from iCloud, does it now allow you to delete individual songs from the device if you're using Match?

Because that would get me using Match again.

Just tested, it does indeed allow manual deletion of tracks and albums, even if "show all music" is turned on. Big step forward IMO.

Indeed, a big step forward (to where we were before the iOS 6 update took this a step back). Now if I can get multiple windows back in iTunes 11, I'll be a happy iTunes user on both platforms! The fact that they brought missing functionality back to the iOS version gives me hope that they'll update the desktop version with missing features as well!

I'm guessing he means something like what Windows Phone 8 has. It's an app centric model where you would call the app, then control it by voice. For example, to use voice control in audible you would first tell the phone to launch audible, then tell audible what to do (ie. play book x).

Probably not going to work then -- that's back to the model where app developers have a limited number of commands they register in each language they support. That's really not how Siri works -- the NLP side of Siri is about ambiguity and allowing complex and multiple ways of doing things ("set alarm for 6 am" / "wake me up 90 minutes before my first meeting").

I don't think Apple would go for something where users have to learn to interact with 3rd party apps in a different way than they interact with Siri in general, and where the 3rd party approach is "10 keywords" rather than robust NLP.

I'd love to see Siri opened up; my point here is that it is not at all an easy thing to do.

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

Agreed 100%; Siri control of Pandora, the ability to check flight status, etc--plus a lot of other ideas that I cannot think of.

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

Really? How would that work? Let's say I'm a developer and I want to add the ability to look up prices for toys. How exactly would I "hook into" Siri to enable this? How would it co-exist with other apps that might do the same thing, or apps like Amazon that cover toys and other things?

Even once you've solved that, how would you handle internationalization? What happens when someone asks Siri about toys in Mandarin? Does my app register languages it can handle? Does Apple translate the request behind the scenes?

It may be that this can be done, but it sure as hell isn't "simpler" than picking a few partners and ensuring 100% coverage of all use cases by limiting them to a very finite universe.

In windows phone 8 any app can register voice commands. It isn't full NLP, but it is better than nothing , which is what you get now from Apple.

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

This is an interesting flexibility/quality issue.

As I've seen it explained, Siri asks each knowledge engine every question put to it, together with some context. And each engine then responds with (a) its best answer and (b) a swag about how likely the answer is relevant. Siri then chooses the best, or if none are good, punts to a web search.

Well and good. But if we now add FrenchRevolution to the knowledge engine list, I'm strongly tempted to design my app to say, “ME!!! PICK ME!!! I KNOW!!! APPROPRIATENESS=255” if I have ANY chance of a fit against whatever I gleaned from a few tens of thousand queries that I've hand-edited from a mix of other sources such as an overnight run against Google, and from which I can get some linkage revenue.

This would not end well. For anybody.

Something else again if say, Walgreens wants to set up a store interface whenever “Walgreens” and some drug are explicitly in the search terms. Or if TimeWarner wants to design the ultimate celebrity gossip engine, maybe with capsules from People. They should have reps calling in Cupertino offering to help where it's clear what the customer's intent is. Ditto, maybe somebody like Uber or AirBNB, with the understanding that there's no exclusive.

Other than that, I'm hard pressed to see how third-party providers are going to be a big help to users. How do you think it'd work?

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

Agreed 100%; Siri control of Pandora, the ability to check flight status, etc--plus a lot of other ideas that I cannot think of.

People are conflating “Siri” with “Voice Input.”

I use voice input on my Chinese-English dictionary (Pleco); works just fine to translate “briefcase” without my typing. No Siri goodness whatsoever; it just works. Yes, I have to start up the dictionary, rather than just ask Siri to translate. (As it is, Siri picked Wolfram Alpha [!] which gives 公文包, as does Pleco. Lucky for them that they're more than just a word-for-word translator.)

Apps that expect text input can take dictated input. Works pretty well. But that ain't Siri. She's rather more involved than dictation, which is why Apple has successfully defended the patent against Global Search.

You know Apple, it would be far simpler (not to mention cheaper) if you simply created a voice control API that developers could use to hook into Siri so they can bring additional functionality to your devices.

Really? How would that work? Let's say I'm a developer and I want to add the ability to look up prices for toys. How exactly would I "hook into" Siri to enable this? How would it co-exist with other apps that might do the same thing, or apps like Amazon that cover toys and other things?

Even once you've solved that, how would you handle internationalization? What happens when someone asks Siri about toys in Mandarin? Does my app register languages it can handle? Does Apple translate the request behind the scenes?

It may be that this can be done, but it sure as hell isn't "simpler" than picking a few partners and ensuring 100% coverage of all use cases by limiting them to a very finite universe.

In windows phone 8 any app can register voice commands. It isn't full NLP, but it is better than nothing , which is what you get now from Apple.

And that's kinda the point. Apple is selling Siri NOT as a "recognize a few words in some pidgin english" product, but as a natural language engine. They have been down the "recognize a few words in some pidgin english" road before, both in their speech recognition on Mac, and in AppleScript, and both cases failed to set the world on fire and were plagued with inconsistency problems, when two apps want to use the same vocabulary for different purposes, or provide different models of their app domain.

Apple is trying to do something different here precisely because ALL earlier attempts following the model you suggest have been disappointments. That doesn't mean that the Apple strategy will work, or couldn't be improved; but it does mean that simply replaying the ideas and APIs of the 90s isn't going to get them where they want to go.

I remember battery complaints on iPhones running 6.0.2 (I believe), but never heard anything after that. I have to believe that, if it's a real issue, the 6.1 update must address that.

Every update since 2007 fields complaints about battery life. It's very difficult to tell which updates actually affected battery life since people tend to be hyper focused on battery life only after they update.

In windows phone 8 any app can register voice commands. It isn't full NLP, but it is better than nothing , which is what you get now from Apple.

Ah, here's the disconnect. Apple doesn't do "better than nothing" (at least not intentionally*). Remember smart phones before iPhone? They were better than nothing.

Apple is far more likely to wait, and to frustrate people by waiting, until they can get it right. And getting it right, when it comes to OS-wide NLP interaction with multiple un-coordinated (and competitive) third party apps is far from easy.

* Though they can certainly fuck up and deliver mediocre or poor products (see: Maps, Newton); my point is they don't set out to develop "better than nothing."